Tuesday, June 20, 2000

We made plans to meet some area relatives (niece-in-law and her youngest) in Pittsford. Prior to casting off from Fairport, we called the liftFairport lift bridge almost open bridge on the radio to request an 0830 opening. The Fairport lift bridge opens only on the hour or half-hour upon request. We had not seen anyone go through the bridge from the time we arrived yesterday.


We arrived in Pittsford in about 1¼ hours. Our passengers were just arriving as we approached, and we stopped briefly at the landing at Schoen Place for them to board.

Cap'n ZakWith our new passengers, we went west through locks 32 and 33. We were warned twice about the strong currents in the Genessee River running about five knots. We turned around a few minutes west of lock 33, well short of the intersection with the Genessee.

Zak quickly got the feel of the helm keeping us on course in the canal. We motored past a park he and his brothers had played in previously which linked the canal experience to familiar turf.

We left off Lisa and Zak in time for Zak to get to his last day of afternoon kindergarden.


On the return I took better notes: we left Pittsford at 1205, arrived in Fairport at 1310 and asked for a 1330 bridge opening. We tied up in Fairport for some grocery shopping after clearing the bridge. We then left Fairport at 1420, we were in lock 30 at 1540, in lock 29 at 1620, in lock 28B at 1810. At 1935 we docked at Lyons, just east of lock 27.

at Lyons' dockThe lock 27 operator told us that there are two electrical outlets at the Lyons dock. While we were self contained, we did use shore power when it was available. There was a westbound Erie Canal Cruise Line boat already docked. That friendly crew recommended a restaurant just up the stairs from the dock, but we had plans to grill some burgers.

We swapped boat tours. Their boat was ~10 feet longer and 2 feet wider than ours. Onondaga is one of the smaller canal boats available. Both boats were manufactured by Mid-Lakes Navigation.


Today we traveled 47 miles.